ABIOTIC — Symbiosis (review)

ABIOTIC — Symbiosis album cover Album · 2012 · Deathcore Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
J-Man
After only releasing one EP in 2011, Floridian technical death metal outfit Abiotic got picked up by the prestigious Metal Blade records to release this debut full-length album. A tremendous success story that any up-and-coming metal group dreams of, Abiotic had either a remarkable stroke of luck or something unique to offer for their first observation. Which of the two is it, you might ask? If truth be told, it's a bit of both. Symbiosis is an album with some genuinely fascinating things going on, but it falls flat in a few areas that are crucial to its success. Although Abiotic's debut is promising in many regards, it lacks the memorability to make for a truly stellar release.

At its core, Symbiosis is very modern technical death metal (think something like Spawn of Possession) with touches of deathcore and thrash-oriented grooves. Though there is certainly no shortage of bands playing ultra-technical death metal these days, the band's clever use of Atheist and Cynic inspired progressive ideas makes for an album that's more interesting than it may initially seem. The band blends many different styles of death metal together on Symbiosis , and while I think some of these experiments were more successful than others, it's nice to see a modern tech-death band interested in moving the genre forward, even if it is a rather small step. Abiotic shines most brightly during the short jazzy sections in a few tracks, as well as the more old-school death metal riffage that appears from time to time. Unfortunately, the band feels the need to include dull deathcore breakdowns into most of the songs, and while a few of these are actually pretty well done, many of them sound just plain generic and uninteresting. It's a shame that Abiotic includes so many cookie-cutter deathcore breakdowns and tech death shredfests into their songs, because there is some genuine promise in the music.

The polished sound production is also likely to turn off many listeners, though I think it suits this style of music well. The musicianship is also at a very high level, with drummer Andres Hurtado sounding especially impressive. Lots of impressive fills and whirlwind blastbeats come from his direction! I think that Symbiosis is promising in many regards, but its generic deathcore sections and lack of memorable compositions make it a pretty mixed bag. Fans of technical death metal and deathcore will want to investigate Abiotic's debut for themselves, but more casual fans of the genre can probably pass on this one.
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